Recipients of cardiac pacemakers are occasionally required to visit their doctors to check up on the performance of their installed pacemakers along with a general check up. The doctor uses devices that can communicate with a pacemaker inductively, i.e. without the need to intrude through skin or other tissues. The devices retrieve performance information from the pacemaker, including battery charge level and any errors in the software controlling the pacemaker. Such equipment is highly specialized, expensive to acquire and expensive to operate with a trained specialist. When not at a medical facility with such equipment and specialists, the pacemaker's performance cannot be remotely monitored. Any sudden onset of performance issues, such as a battery draining at an abnormal rate, may present a life threatening situation that is undetected until it is too late to take action.
Mobile devices, such as cellular telephones, have become a common tool of everyday life. Cellular telephones are no longer used simply to place telephone calls. With the number of available features rapidly increasing, cellular telephones are now used for storing addresses, keeping a calendar, reading e-mails, drafting documents, etc. These devices are small enough that they can be carried in a pocket or purse all day, allowing a patient to stay in contact almost anywhere. Recent devices have become highly functional, providing applications useful to business professionals as well as the casual patient.
Mobile devices are frequently used for sending and receiving messages. Such devices may, for instance, send basic text messages using Short Message Service (SMS) and enhanced messages using Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Unfortunately, nowadays, the number of abilities also allows mobile devices to introduce new malware propagation vectors such as SMS/MMS messaging and file transfers. MMS messages can embed text, audio, images and video. However, none of these messaging capabilities have been applied to cardiac pacemakers.
On a worldwide basis there are 3 million people with pacemakers now and it is growing by 600,000 per year and accelerating. Therefore, what are needed are improved devices, systems, and methods to collect and analyze information from a cardiac pacemaker.
The subject disclosure presents devices, systems, and methods for relaying information from a cardiac pacemaker to an external device. In exemplary embodiments, logic on the pacemaker modulates a heartbeat clock of the pacemaker to encode information onto a blood pressure sequence. This is accomplished by adding or subtracting a small subinterval to or from a pulse repetition interval of the pacemaker. A muscle stimulator beats the heart according to the modulated sequence. A monitoring device external to the body monitors the blood pressure to retrieve the encoded information, or message. The encoded information is then decoded to determine the information in the message. This information may concern the pacemaker as well as other devices within the body that are in communication with the pacemaker such as blood monitors, etc. Since the message is conveyed via simple modulation of the heart beat intervals, no separate transmitter is required in the pacemaker which would otherwise increase cost and decrease battery life.
The pacemaker performance information may be transmitted to medical entities on a daily basis rather than having to wait for extended intervals between checkups. Potential problems with the pacemaker or its battery are identified much faster, thereby avoiding a life threatening condition. Exemplary embodiments require no more energy than used by existing pacemakers, and do not require a physical redesign. A software modification enables the pacemaker to transmit information through the patient's heartbeat. This reduces the frequency of doctor's appointments, resulting in lower cost to the patient, less strain on medical institutions, lower insurance premiums, and enhanced profit margins for medical entities. Further, the rapidly increasing portion of the population that currently has pacemakers can immediately benefit from the devices and mobile applications disclosed herein.
In one exemplary embodiment, the subject disclosure is a method for communicating information through a heartbeat. The method includes applying a standard interval clock to stimulate a heartbeat, modifying an interval of the standard interval clock by one of adding and subtracting a subinterval to represent a binary digit, and stimulating a heart muscle according to the modified interval.
In another exemplary embodiment, the subject disclosure is a device for communicating information through a heartbeat. The device includes a standard interval clock for stimulating a heartbeat, a clock modulator for modifying an interval of the standard interval clock by one of adding and subtracting a subinterval to represent a binary digit, and a muscle stimulator for stimulating a heart muscle according to the modified interval.
In yet another exemplary embodiment, the subject disclosure is a system for communicating information through a heartbeat. The system includes a pacemaker for applying a standard interval clock to stimulate a heartbeat, modifying an interval of the standard interval clock by one of adding and subtracting a subinterval to represent a binary digit, and stimulating a heart muscle according to the modified interval, and a pulse monitor for receiving the binary digit from the heartbeat.